Latest News
Overhauling the child protection system in the spirit of bi-partisanship – PeakCare invites you to have your say
This week child protection was the subject of fiery discussions in State Parliament. PeakCare respects the gusto with which Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington placed child protection to the fore in the attention given to it by Parliament. PeakCare also respects the invitation extended to the Opposition by Premier Palaszczuk to work with the Government in a bi-partisan manner on improvements to the child protection system, along with Ms Frecklington’s acceptance of this invitation.
This commitment to bi-partisanship in tackling the issues confronting child protection opens the door for the non-government sector to openly and robustly contribute the wisdom of our experiences and opinions to the joint deliberations of the political parties. To enable you to fully avail yourselves of this opportunity, PeakCare in partnership with the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP) has developed a survey for you to complete.
The survey is based on information drawn from the LNP’s media release, The Child Protection Force: LNP’s plan to overhaul child safety system, dated 17th June 2020. In respect of each of the survey questions, you are invited to indicate whether you agree, mostly agree, agree in part, mostly disagree or disagree with each of the LNP’s proposals. You may choose to add comments, if you wish, that elaborate on or qualify your response to each question.
At the end of the survey, you are also invited to list matters that you think may have been missed from the LNP’s plan to overhaul the child protection system.
Subject to how many comments you wish to add, the survey should take around 5 to 15 minutes to complete.
PeakCare and QATSICPP are encouraging a wide cross-section of people – policy-makers, managers and staff from both government and non-government organisations, academics, carers, and young people, parents and other family members who have a lived experience of the child protection system – to complete the survey and contribute their views.
No names or other identifying information of individual survey respondents or the organisations for whom they work will be collected, stored or included within the collated survey results. It is mandatory however for all survey respondents to indicate a ‘category’ to which they belong (such as an employee of a PeakCare or QATSICPP Member organisation; Government agency employee; or young person with a lived experience of the child protection system). This will be important in gaining an understanding of any differences in the opinions that may be held by various groups.
Individuals are permitted to complete the survey once only. Checks can be used to monitor compliance with this rule. It is also noted that only existing eNews subscribers will be able to complete the survey.
PeakCare and QATSCIPP will add our own commentary to the collated results, highlighting both the matters where there may be a strong consensus of opinion as well as those where there are divergent views, and provide a report of the results to the political parties.
The survey closes COB Friday, 10th July. Make your views known!
Click here to access the survey.
Less case loads, how are people suppose to provide appropriate support when they are all overloaded!
Dramatic increase in pay for social workers, All SW are underpaid and overworked!
Appropriately qualified staff, (social workers).
ALL workers to be DFV And trauma informed Practitioners and to have ongoing training !
Support the parent to support the child!
Less paperwork, the over Bureaucratised system makes it impossible to be effective!
Culture overall for our First Nations people racism is rife in the white privileged policies!
The prevailing narrative of the LNP approach seems to be another way to justify the ongoing war on drugs which is in fact a war on parents and children. A holistic approach to Child Safety cannot overlook the needs and rights of parents because additional child protection from a unit trained that looks and sounds like the police is highly likely further traumatised, stigmatise and humiliate. We all want the lives of vulnerable children to be improved, for children to live with their parents in safe homes but policies intended to achieve that should not appear to be a post colonial middle class approach that offers no solutions for families. A new approach should not prioritise mandatory drug testing and child removal to foster care but mandatory provision of treatment support and family reunification where possible. This leads to improved educational and employment opportunities and breaks the intergenerational cycle of substance use.